Closure member and method of forming and applying



July 4, 1933.

L. G., COPEMAN CLOSURE MEMBER AND METHOD OF FORMING AND' APPLYING FiledJuly 2, 1930 13 01 0 5 COPEMMK Patented July 4, 1933 UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE LLOYD OF FLINT, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOR 'IO COPEMAN'LABORATORIES COMPANY, OF FLINT, MICHIGAIL-A CORPORATION OF MICHIGANCLOSURE ER A1511) METHOD OF FORMING AND AP?LYTNG Application fllcd July2, 1930. Sci-elite. 465.3%.

This invention relates to a closure member and method of forming andapplying, and has to do particularly with a novel manner of fabricatingor treating the periphery of a milk bottle cap whereby to obtain apositive seal when applied to the mouth of a milk I bottle.

- place such deformable The positive sealing of milk bottles and similararticleshas long presented a very serious problem. A common method ofob= taining such sealing is by providing a completely separate hood orcap for covering the entire top of the bottle in addition to theordinary milk bottle'cap, and such hoods or caps have been formed ofpaper, latex, and ot ier materials.

It is the object of the present invention to preferably utilize only thecommon paper disc milk bottle ca and treat the periphery of the same insue a way as to present an elastic distortable edge for contact with themouth of the bottle. More specifically, the present invention resides ina milk bottle cap the periphery of which is relatively deformable andpreferably slightly larger in diameter than the opening in the milkbottle with the result that when the cap is inserted in periphery adaptsitseli to any irregularities in the neck of the bottle and is alsoslightly deformed so as to provide a positive seal.

A further feature of the invention resides in the method of forming theelastic periphcry on the cap and this is preferably accomplished byeither forming an annular ring of latex or similar material around theperiphery of the cap or by coating all surfaces of 1the cap with suchlatex or similar materia In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a more or less diagrammatic view illustrating one method ofapplying an annular ring of latex to the milk bottle caps.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view, partly cut away, of a cap all of thesurfaces of which are coated with a layer of elastic material.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view, partly cut away, of a milk bottle capformed in accordance with the method shown in Fig. 1.

Fig 4 is an enlarged fragmentary section a1 view illustrating the sealedjoint obtained by applying a cap such as shown in Fig. 3 to a milkbottle Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 4 but showmg the cap, such asshown in Fig. 2, as applied to a milk bottle.

very inexpensive closure member for milk bottles and while manydifierent types and forms of milk bottle caps have been designed thepresent inventionis applicable to all of such inexpensive capsregardless of any pe culiar characteristics thereof.

, I prefer to use latex in carrying out the present invention because ofits cheapness and ease of application, but it will be understood thatother similar materials or other types of rubber may be used withoutmaterially increasing the cost of the closure member. The later used incarrying out the present invention may be latex in its commercial formprovided with the desired accelerators, or such latex may be diluted todifierent eX- tents in accordance with the sealing qualities desired.

The preferred form of carrying out the present invention isthatillustrated by Fig. 1 wherein any standard cap as at 1 may be heldby any suitable means (not shown) whereby the periphery of the cap issubjected to a coatin 2 of liquid later. This latex may be app ied bymaintaining a body 3 of the latex in a trough 4 in which case the meansholding the respective discs or caps will be such as to permit rotationof the caps so that the latex is a plied as an annular ring, as shown at2. t will be obvious that any suitable means may be utilized foractuating the discs so as to coat around their periphery.

When the periphery of the cap has been coated with the layer of latex itmay be subjected to temperature soas to quickly Eli) vulcanize and fixthe same. In Fig. 1 I have illustrated as at 5 a receptacle which may beof such length and maintained at such temperature that when the cap 2with its annular ring of latex asses through the same it will bevulcanized and in condition to be immediately handled. The milk bottlecaps or other closure members are preferably of standard dimensions,particularly the diameter thereof, so that the thin coating of'latex orother resilient material will be slightly compressed or else snugly fitany depression or cavity in the milk bottle surface.

In coating just the eriphery of the cap with latex the uncoated surfacesof the cap may be parafiined or similarly treated in the standardmanner. In coating all the surfaces of the cap, as shown in Fig. 2, suchcap may be initially a plain uncoated paper cap or the like and thecoating of latex or similar material may be sprayed thereon or the capmay be dipped if desired. Such sprayed or dipped caps ma be subjected totemperature so as to quickly vulcanize the same or they may be air driedand air vulcanized.

The latex or other material applied to the periphery or the entiresurface of the cap may be colored any color desired or may be left thenatural color of the latex or other material. In either the form shownin Fig. 4 or Fig. 5 it will be obvious that there will be a layer ofresilient elastic material between the cap and the shoulder 6 of thebottle so that an additional seal will be obtained at this point inaddition to the peripheral seal around the edge of the cap. As the capsin all milk bottles are held in place by friction, it will be obviousthat this resilient layer of latex will be compressed and held incontact against the shoulder 6 by the same friction which holds the capin lace.

It will thus be seen t at I have provided a closure for milk bottles andthe like which, by means of its elastic distortable peri hery makes itpossible to positively seal the bottle by use of asingle closure member.In other words, the milk cap itself can now be utilized to accomplishthe same function as the separate hood or cap member. As the bottle ispositively sealed none of the contents can leak out and thus the maindanger of contamination of milk bottles is eliminated. In case where anannular ring of resilient material te is applied to the cap, as sh ownin Fig. 3, very little expense is added to the cap because of therelatively low cost of latex and the simple method in which it isapplied. In a. case where the entire capl is coated, as shown in Figs. 2and 5, then t e cost of the final cap is substantially the same as thestandard paraflin cap as the use of paraflin is eliminated and latextakes its place. The cost of applying latex would be approximately thesame as coating the cap with paraflin.

What I claim is:

1. A. closure member for milk bottles and the like formed of relativelystid paper having a coating of elastic material around the peripherythereof, said material being dc- 1posited from an aqueous dispersion ofrub- 2. A closure member for milk bottles or the like having a main bodyof relatively ri id paper and a coating of relatively deforms lematerial deposited from an aqueous dispersion of rubber around theperiphery and lower edge thereof.

3. A closure member for milk bottles or the like having a main bod ofrelatively rigid paper and a coating of atex around the periphery andlower edge thereof.

4-. A closure member for milk bottles or the like having a body of paperand a layer of latex around the periphery thereof.

5. The method of formin mill: bottle caps and the like out of relativelystiff paper and having a deformable surface as a part thereof whichcomprises coating a portion of the cap with a layer of latex.

6. The method of forming milk bottle caps and the like out of relativelystih' paper and having a deformable surface as a art thereof whichcomprises coating the periphery and adjacent edges of thecap with alayer of latex.

7. The method of forming milk bottle caps and the like to provide adeformable surface as a part thereof which comprises coatin the eripheryof the cap with a layer of atex y dipping the periphery into liquidlatex,

and then passing said coated cap through a heated chamber to vulcanizethe same.

8. The method of forming milk bottle caps and the like to rovide adeformable surface as a part thereo? which comprises coating theperiphery of the cap with a layer of latex by dipping the periphery intoliquid latex, and passing the cap. t rou h a heated chamber ofsuflicient length to vu canize and prepare the same for immediatehandling.

9. The method of forming a milk bottle cap to provide one or moredeformable surfaces for engaging the milk bottle, which comprisescoating a plain paper cap with a layer of la- 10. The method of closingmilk bottles with a single closure member made of relatively stiff pa rwhereby to positively seal the same, w ich comprises coating thesurfaces of the closure member, adapted to contact with a surface orsurfaces of the milk bottle, with a layer of elastic deformablematerial. In testimony whereofI aflix m si ature.

LLOYD G. CO

